Andrew Bogut: The realisation of a dream

Just days away from the NBA Finals, Andrew Bogut is on the precipice of reaching the ultimate prize.

He is always generous with his time and keen to present the view of an NBA player to his local and beloved audience.

With a series still in the balance, maybe this is a bit premature, but it's impossible to shy away from what a previously elusive NBA title would mean to Australia's leading man.

We've felt the sheer joy as a nation - watching on as Patty Mills and Aron Baynes won it all last season. And with Matthew Dellavedova also featuring in this year's NBA Finals, there'll be celebrations either way.

But how can you look past the story of Bogut - a player in the twilight of his career, who has faced as much adversity as anyone - reaching the summit?

To be perfectly clear, this piece is not designed to be an exercise in picking favourites. It's about appreciating a journey, overcoming misfortune and everything else associated with an athlete who has handled expectation admirably.

Experiencing highs and incredible lows and coming out the other side as the consummate professional.

Throughout his accomplished collegiate years and his NBA career, a total of seven head coaches have been provided with a chance to force their imprint on this (at times) narrow-minded, tough-talking and blunt Australian.

However, it's the coach that is keen to express the influence that a 20-year-old Australian had on him, who provides the most poignant insight into Australia's greatest basketball export.

Enter: Ray Giacoletti, Bogut's second mentor at the University of Utah.

A prospect with tremendous upside - the lanky Australian could have taken an early exit to head directly to the NBA.

Giacoletti knew of his ability after watching on from afar and made it his mission to convince him that staying on for his sophomore season was the smart thing to do.

"I knew who he was and was very excited to have a chance to meet with him," he explained.

"Our biggest struggle that year when I took the job was trying to convince him that the smart move, the right move and the best for him would be to come back to Utah for another year."

"That took a little bit of time and I tried to build a relationship with him to develop trust."

When you have a special talent like Andrew Bogut - a player who could potentially lead the Utes to a historic season, anything will be done to keep him.

"I remember getting on a plane right away and flying down to Australia to meet his Mum and Dad and then literally turning around and flying back the next morning."

What transpired next, shaped the careers of both individuals, as the Utes went on to record a historic and magical season.

Bogut averaged 20.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and shot 62 percent from the field, while becoming Utah's first-ever consensus National Player of the Year and earning Player of the Year honours from the Associated Press and ESPN.com, plus the Naismith and Wooden Awards.

"It was a great blessing for me to be a part of Andrew."

"I don't think we did that much to help develop him, other than he was going to touch the ball every possession. He was either going to score it or facilitate it."

"He was a dominating offensive player, a dominating rebounder for college basketball," Giacoletti recounted.

"He led wire-to-wire that year the country in rebounds until the last game of the season."

If you could encapsulate Andrew Bogut's persistence in one story, this anecdote from Ray Giacoletti is the one you would look to provide.

"I remember talking to him about how he was going to separate himself from everyone else in the country," Giacoletti recalls.

"I remember saying that if you could lead the country in rebounding that is something that would separate you from a lot of different people and that's something that correlates in every level of basketball. In his freshman year, he led the league in block shots, I remember talking to him about taking charges because that's what we wanted him to do. I did it in a team setting and then he came to my office afterwards and said, 'I don't know if you know this or not, but I led the conference in block shots last year.' I said yeah, I know that, but we need you to be able to play for 35 minutes a night, and I don't want you trying to block every shot that's out there, if you could learn how to take charges, that would be unbelievable for a centre to take charges, it would be really unique. He led our team that year in charges taken. When the best player in the country buys into little things like that. I still tell our teams today, I tell them about that story."

Bogut would still go on to lead the conference in block shots, but he was a well-rounded defender now.

He picked his times, coming over from the weakside to turn back shots, or when his opponent left his feet, he didn't have to move because he was already in position to take a charge.

It's that maturity and constant willingness to get better that not only impresses his former mentor, but inspired him to approach Bogut to address his current pupils.

In the offseason, the Warriors played an exhibition game in Des Moines, Iowa, where Giacoletti now spends his time as the head coach of Drake University.

When it was known that both could cross paths once again, Giacoletti jumped at it.

"I took our entire Drake team down to watch him and Andrew had the chance to meet our guys and visit with them afterwards."

"It was a really special night for me because our team had the chance to meet Andrew and he was able to give some words of wisdom."

Throughout his 10 seasons in the Association, Giacoletti has watched his favourite pupil closely and celebrated the maturation both on and off the court.

"The thing about Andrew is that he's going to tell it like it is - he's direct and to the point. He hasn't lost any of his values, he's still Andrew. I'll text him and he'll always text back. He has always been great about staying in touch."

"He has his own career, but it used to be that he would call or text when he was leaving to go back home, or when he got back to the States to start camp," said Giacoletti.

"He is a very old school guy, old school values and morals. His mum and dad did a heck of a job raising him and it appears to me that he hasn't lost any of that through the 10 years in the NBA."

This season, Bogut's biggest impact to the best team in basketball has been on the defensive end of the floor.

Steve Kerr, however, was determined to get the big man involved more on the offensive end - something that was an afterthought under Mark Jackson.

He averaged 2.7 assists in the regular season, averaging 34 passes per game and 6.4 points created from assists, courtesy of SportVU data.

These aren't mind blowing, but they're a fairly significant upgrade on his production under Jackson last season.

"He was the best passing big man that I've ever been around," Giacoletti recounted.

"I see him throw passes today in games and I'll just be like, you just don't see big guys who can pass the basketball like that."

Bogut has been willing as a Warrior to sacrifice his own numbers to benefit the team - something that has been so evident in this season's incredible run.

"They want me to create up top and sometimes when we've been a little stagnant offensively, they like to move the ball through myself or David [Lee] and I enjoy being a passer, I don't need to try and score or shoot all the time, I'm happy to facilitate."

As Curry and Thompson have flourished and Andre Iguodala has been acquired, the need simply hasn't been there for the Warriors to throw the ball inside to Bogut and let him go to work.

Throughout his two seasons with Utahand his time in the NBA with Milwaukee, that would have been the solution.

He's been the top dog on teams - that's what he's always been used to.

That has all changed in Oakland, but the 7-footer truly doesn't mind.

"This roster has been together long enough now and that's why we're so close," Bogut said.

"We don't have any players with big egos or guys who think they are prima donnas, which helps with the team balance."

Could he still be a dominant scorer if he had the green light?

His biggest supporter believes he could.

"I think people forget how dominant of a low-post scorer he still could be today - and he was, but he's all about winning," Giacoletti explains.

"What do I have to do to fit into a team? He wants to be with 'team' guys, 'we' guys and I think he's found it in Golden State."

He's still a double-digit rebounder, he shows occasional flashes of brilliance inside - often keen to back his opponent down and show how adept he is at finishing with the left hand.

But he's playing on a true team, we're everyone contributes and each player is on the same page.

There's no miscommunication, no disorderly behaviour. They all buy into the same team rules and play with a perfect synchronicity on both ends.

"It's always been important for him to be on a true team," Giacoletti believes.

"It's not about making money in the NBA and playing with a bunch of selfish guys, that's not part of what he wanted."

"It's really refreshing and I'm excited for him that he gets a chance at this point of his career to be able to play on that team."

You can tell when a team is on the same page and when they like each other, they play for each other.

It's not only the team he finds himself on that has contributed to his down-sized offensive role.

Bogut has had a horrific run of injuries throughout his NBA journey, with two of those having the potential to be career-threatening.

Late in the 2010 season, Bogut fell awkwardly while trying to score in transition against Amaré Stoudemire.

In an attempt to break his fall, he placed his right arm on the ground but he landed with all of his weight on top of his wrist.

He ended up with a dislocated right elbow and a broken right hand.

His arm has never been the same since, to the point where he has tried shooting free throws left-handed.

"Shooting left-handed from the free-throw line is something I tried in the preseason," he said.

"I feel the release on the left side is much straighter than the right elbow, so it's a matter of getting the depth right and the direction right."

It got to the point where Bogut was actually 50/50 on whether he'd persist with the technique, but he made the decision to revert to using his right hand.

There was also the ankle injury that occurred nearly two years after the first debilitating setback.

It wasn't just the horrendous injuries he suffered that plagued Bogut, it was the perception that he was 'injury prone' that frustrates the Australian.

"Injuries are a part of sport," Bogut explains.

"Some have to do with luck, some have to do with other things but I'm not going to try and avoid contact at all costs and play basketball that way."

"I don't think it should be played that way."

It's virtually impossible to educate the populace that simply expect him to be injuredand have expected the Warriors' title hopes to come crashing down with one Bogut setback.

Throughout his 10 seasons, he has had three significant injuries, two of which occurred on freak plays.

Looking at it from another perspective, however, could those injuries eventually prolong his career?

"The injury thing might have worked in reverse for him," Giacoletti explains.

"I don't know this for sure, but it may have extended his career a little bit because he didn't have the pounding on his body for two or three years when he was injured and missing games."

"Who knows, maybe he plays for another three or four years, he's playing pretty darn good basketball, there's no stopping him right now."

Right now, Giacoletti's staff at Drake University closely analyse Kerr's Warriors and how they look to execute on the offensive end.

Over the last two months, they've studied the tape, delved into the way they score so seamlessly in transition, looking at their pin downs and how they find room to get their best shooters open.

With the Splash Brothers, they have two of the best guards in the world and they do so many creative things to get them open looks.

Giacoletti talks fondly about the way in which Bogut is used.

One thing they do is a pin-down with some space and then it's a pocket pass to Bogut slipping, or a pin-down and slip, to not only get the ball, but use his ability to free up space for others.

"I think in this stage of his career, this is a great fit for who he is right now," Giacoletti said.

"I always thought there were some times there when I'd watch a game and they're not using him."

"I'm not talking about this year, but in years past when I didn't think they were using him as much as they should. Again, Andrew's a team-first guy and the flow and structure of this offence, he's bought in to and it seems like a really good fit."

Bogut has always been adaptable, with the ability to fit in and do as required.

In Oakland, it's on the offensive end where he has sacrificed his role for the good of the team.

On the defensive end, however, he has flourished over the last few seasons.

Even 10 years into his NBA career, Giacoletti still likes to discuss Bogut's growth with his peers in the coaching fraternity.

"I sat next to Kelvin Sampson and all he wanted to talk about was the fact that there was nobody better that he'd been around at being able to defend ball screens," Giacoletti joked.

Sampson had also received the privilege of being around Bogut in a coaching capacity, when he was an assistant on the Milwaukee Bucks from 2008-2011.

The two recalled their experiences with Andrew, and how tough it is firstly to defend a ball screen, and secondly, the ways in which Bogut's teams have utilised his abilities to deny the opposition offensively.

"We sat down three weeks ago and chatted about how Andrew can defend a ball screen, he can switch it, down it, show, trap it - Andrew was one of the best he'd been around in the NBA."

While Giacoletti is an interested onlooker every time Bogut takes the floor for the Warriors - and particularly as they embark on The Finals - it's hard to move away from the past and the profound influence that a skinny kid from Melbourne bestowed upon him.

"I'll never have a chance to coach another guy like him," Giacoletti explained.

"It was one of those special years with a special player and in this business, they don't come along very often."

As obvious as Bogut's impact to the Utes was on the head coach, he wasn't necessarily confident that would translate to the 2005 NBA Draft.

In the lead up to the biggest night of Bogut's young life, Giacoletti never thought he'd be taken with the first overall selection.

"I never even talked about Andrew going number one in the draft, I never even thought about it during the season."

"I remember on the night of the draft in New York City, his agent telling us maybe 10 minutes before the draft, 'Don't be disappointed everybody at the table if he's the second guy picked, or the third,' there's a possibility of some deals going down that somebody could trade up and they wanted something else."

"It wasn't until David Stern called his name that we knew for sure."

And with that, it stands out so clearly, how tough it is to crack it in the best league in the world.

The percentage of players who make the jump from college to the NBA is miniscule.

With that in mind, it's imperative for mentors at the collegiate level to prepare their athletes for life and for the workforce.

Perhaps, the opportunity will arise for a player to play overseas for a couple of seasons. Either way, each individual is treated with the same amount of care and is prepared the same way.

"Today, in society and in America, it's such an 'I' society," Giacoletti explains.

"At Drake, we spend so much time on 'we' and 'team' and what you can do for the betterment of the team."

"We're just trying to build a sense of pride at Drake now, there's not a lot of tradition here so we have an opportunity to put our imprints and footprints all over this place."

"There are enough bad examples out there; thank God Andrew Bogut is one of the great examples."